Changing squirrel population-Fox to Gray

[Cecil Sistrunk]

I have been living in my current location for about 25 years. I never saw a fox squirrel around my house until the spring of 2020. Oak trees in my yard were loaded and they moved up from way behind my house to feed. Since acorns have all dropped, haven’t seen any in my yard. I was deer hunting on a pasture about 300 yards behind my house. There was a large number of fox squirrels came above me going through the trees along a fence line. They were nesting in a stand of pines and traveling down the fence line to some hardwoods to feed. They move a little after daylight and come back up fence line just before dark. Funny thing, where I see the reds, there are no greys.

[only1harry]

The Gray's are likely to take over.  I don't know why, but there was a similar discussion on this many years ago, and if I recall everyone was saying that they Gray's have pushed the fox squirrels out or outnumbered them xx years later after being the minority.

Coincidentally, a tree going away that was a good food source for the squirrels can severely impact the squirrel population in your neighborhood.  That doesn't means they died, but that they were forced to move away to where there are nut trees and other food sources.  I always had a lot of squirrels on my property before the Cherry tree in my backyard came down during a storm in the winter of 2011-12.  I used to shoot 40 to 50 squirrels during the season every year, and overnight their #s were significantly reduced.  Half the squirrels I shot were on that Cherry tree every Fall, and every maple tree on my property had at least 2 squirrel dens.  Then the oak tree that I share with a neighbor (on the property line ~50 yards out) did not produce acorns for a few years and the squirrels just about disappeared.  During that time I also had to cut down some trees that had large limbs come down during storms.  1 of them damaged the chain link fence (where we used to keep the dog in) and landed a couple of feet from the house, so these tall 80+ft trees, some of which had started dying, had to be removed.  This made it worse for the squirrels.  It wasn't until the oak tree had a mast in 2017 or '18 that they started coming back, but nowhere near the previous numbers, and I only found a single squirrel den on the property this summer compared to a dozen or more 9 years ago.

[pecci]

I have lived here for over 40 years in an old suburb.
There have always been fox squirrels around. They even nested in the two Siberian elm trees in my yard until the trees were removed.
I NEVER say a gray squirrel in all those years until last year. Now there are more of them.
The neighbor across the street sets out corn for them and during feeding time there will be up to 18 squirrels (the most I have been able to count) running around, climbing trees and chasing each other. About 1/5 of them are grays now.
Anyone else ever seen another type of squirrel move into a neighborhood?
Are the grays likely to take over?
I would have thought the bigger fox squirrels would be able to hold their own.
Gary

I've done some research on this, and have read that the grays, though smaller, are more aggressive than the fox squirrel.  Territorial, in a way.

[Mrblonde40]

I don't know, I've got grey, black and fox squirrels all living in my yard, and have for the 14 years I've lived there.  They will get pushed out in the summer by red squirrels, I will shoot the red squirrels and then the other squirrels come back, it happens every year, usually 2 or 3 times.  I only shoot the reds, the others have not been destructive so they get a pass.  There is one squirrel, I named her Brutus (before I knew she was female), her and her 2 brothers are all particularly large.  But she is bigger than them, braver, and very pregnant, so when she comes around we throw apple slices to her, and we always put out enough away from her tree that the other squirrels can have some too. 

[Firewalker]

Funny things, squirrels.  We had gray's galore 2 years ago then last year a couple reds showed up and no grays since.

I have a red that eats pinecones on my wood pile and yells at me while I am cutting it.

[A.K.A. Tommy Boy]

In my area, I have Grays , Reds , Black Phased Grays and a very very few Flying Squirrels.
I am too for north for Fox Squirrels ...I think.
I have never see any Fox Squirrels around the area that I live in.
Some of the Grays that I have harvested looked almost like a Fox Squirrel though.
I have also harvested Reds that looked a lot like a small Gray.


Best Wishes - Tom

[Bicycleman]

Tom, check out the link below.  Look down in the section 'Squirrels':  Fox Squirrels are mentioned.  It is just you that the Fox Squirrels don't like.  Hee hee
In Louisiana where I hunted for over 40 years, I never saw a Gray Squirrel - only Fox Squirrels.  I also hunted in the northern end of the state and saw only Gray Squirrels.  I tend to believe that the Fox Squirrels like to stay near a water source.  But that's just my thoughts.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mammals_of_Minnesota

[north country gal]

I grew up hunting Fox squirrels in Nebraska farm country. It was all Fox  squirrels, there. I remember seeing them while pheasant hunting way out along fence lines, far, far from their homes in the woodlots. Got a chuckle seeing them drag ears of corn all the way back to their nests. Obviously well-adapted to foraging in open country.

Now live in the north woods. All Grays and Reds, here. Yeah, those little Reds are characters. Have seen them chase away the much larger Grays from the feeders many times.